The Records Retention and Disposition Schedule and retention periods governing the records series listed herein are hereby approved. In accordance with the provisions of Chapters 121 and 132 of the General Statutes of North Carolina, it is agreed that the records listed in the

do not and will not have further official use or value for administrative, research, or reference purposes after the respective retention periods specified herein. The N. C. Department of Cultural Resources consents to the destruction or other disposition of these records in accordance with the retention and disposition instructions specified in this schedule. However, records subject to audit or those legally required for ongoing official proceedings must be retained until released from such audits or official proceedings, notwithstanding the instructions of this schedule. Public records including machine readable records not listed in this schedule are not authorized to be destroyed. This schedule is to remain in effect until superseded.

1. The Problem. At all levels of public and private life, records have been and are becoming more numerous and voluminous. As records accumulate and as the volume of records increases, many university officials are faced with the problem of finding adequate and satisfactory space in which to store them. Attics, basements, and cramped storerooms have been used to house records, many of which should have been either destroyed or placed in archival repositories. These makeshift storage areas often are dirty, infested with vermin and insects, and subject to moisture and heat. Records that are stored under such conditions rapidly deteriorate. In addition, records in these storage areas are usually so inaccessible and disorganized that specific records are virtually lost - even when the information they contain is needed for important purposes.

2. The Need for a Plan. By placing valuable records in proper storage areas and by destroying worthless records, office efficiency is improved and considerable cost savings are realized. Because of their administrative or research value, some records should be permanently preserved. Many other records have only a temporary administrative value and little or no research value. When no longer needed for administrative purposes these records should be disposed of to make room for those of current and continuing value. Accordingly, an orderly plan for the retention and disposal of university records is essential. This publication is such a plan.

3. The Plan. The University Records Retention and Disposition Schedule has been prepared as a guide to assist state-supported universities of North Carolina in determining the proper method and time of records disposition. It contains a list of records common to universities and specifies the minimum period of time each record series should be maintained. It also conveys legal authorization for their disposal after the records are of no further use or value.

This is a general schedule and does not identify every record created or collected in every university. Moreover, since no two institutions are organized alike, some records located in a particular office in your institution may be listed under some other office heading in this schedule. If this is the case, simply use the index to locate disposition instructions for your records under the same or another heading.

Likewise, all records listed in this schedule are not necessarily kept in every university. Consequently, the listing of a particular record series does not imply, or require, that it is to be kept. Furthermore, records scheduled for destruction after the specified period of time should be retained longer if required for legal actions, audits, or other official administrative action.

4. Amending This Schedule. if you wish to change a retention period of any of the items listed in this schedule or if you wish to add a group of records that does not appear in this schedule, fill out a copy of Form RC-3U (Request for Change in Records Schedule) or Form RC-4U (Request and Approval of Unscheduled Records Disposal), as appropriate, and deliver it to the designated University Archivist/Records Administrator. The completed form will then be reviewed and forwarded to the Records Services Branch of the North Carolina Division of Archives and History for approval. A copy of each form is in the back of this records schedule. Additional forms may be obtained from the University Archivist/Records Administrator, Division of Archives and History, 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27601-2807.

5. Public Records. The records of state-supported institutions are public records and may be disposed of only in accordance with the provisions of G.S. 121-5. These records are public property and constitute a record of public acts. Accordingly, they should remain in the custody and control of the institution that created them or received them pursuant to law, or they should be disposed of as recommended in the schedule. They may not legally be placed in the custody of private or semipublic institutions or turned over to private individuals.

a. Public Records Defined. Chapters 121 and 132 of the General Statutes of North Carolina state: "Public record or public records shall mean all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic data-processing records, artifacts, or other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance in connection with the transaction of public business by any agency of North Carolina government or its subdivisions. Agency of North Carolina government or its subdivisions shall mean and include every public office, public officer or official (State or local, elected or appointed), institution, board, commission, bureau, council, department, authority or other unit of government of the State or of any county, unit, special district or other political subdivision of government."

b. Not All Public Records Are Open to the Public. Public records are state property. However, not all official public records are open to the public or subject to the provisions of Chapter 132 of the General Statutes of North Carolina. Many records are protected from general access or casual reference by "need to know" restrictions, by specific state or federal laws, by common law principles, or by legal precedent and therefore can be seen only by court order. Consequently, even though G.S. 132-6 provides for public accessibility to most records, certain records should be considered confidential in order to protect the privacy rights of students, university personnel, and other individuals. Where possible, these records have been identified in this schedule; however, many other such records have not been listed as being confidential because of the diversity of records maintained by the different universities. It is the responsibility of each records custodian to be familiar with G.S. 126-22/29, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (20 USCA 1232g), university policy, and all other pertinent state and federal legislation and regulations in order to ensure the proper protection of restricted information. If in doubt, consult the university legal counsel.

c. Data Processing and Other Machine Readable Records. Many paper university records are being eliminated when the information has been placed on magnetic tapes, disks, or other data processing media. In these cases, the information on the data processing medium should be retained for the length of time specified in this schedule for paper records and should be subject to the same confidentiality and access restrictions as paper records.

6. Destruction of Records. Chapters 121 and 132 of the General Statutes provide that the records of any state agency or institution may not be destroyed or otherwise disposed of without the prior consent of the Department of Cultural Resources under the rules and regulations adopted by the North Carolina Historical Commission.

a. Flexibility. The schedule is not intended to be rigid and inflexible. There may be times when records scheduled for destruction or transfer are requested for a special audit, need to be retained until a regular audit has been resolved, or are pertinent to pending or ongoing litigation or other official action. There also may be situations in which federal program regulations or retention periods require that records be kept longer than specified in this schedule. In all such instances the longer retention period shall apply. All questions concerning legal requirements for retaining a record should be referred to the university legal counsel for resolution. Nothing in this schedule is intended to replace good judgment.

b. Destruction Method. University records scheduled to be destroyed must not be permitted to fall into unauthorized hands. Where authorized, confidential or sensitive records scheduled for destruction should be burned, shredded, or buried. Nonconfidential and nonsensitive records may be disposed of in trash containers.

c. Authority for Destruction - State-Supported institutions. G.S. 121-5 provides that when the custodian of official records certifies that the records no longer have administrative or official use and the Department of Cultural Resources certifies that they no longer have research or reference value, they may be destroyed. This schedule, with the list of records and suggested retention periods as contained herein, is construed to be certification by the Department of Cultural Resources that the records that are recommended for destruction after specific periods of time do not have research or reference value.

Records of state institutions may not be destroyed in a lesser time than set forth in the schedule without prior specific approval of the Department of Cultural Resources. In the event that a state institution desires to destroy a record that is scheduled for permanent retention in this records schedule, specific application should be made through the University Archivist/Records Administrator to the Division of Archives and History (Department of Cultural Resources), 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27601-2807. This application should include full justification for the action requested.

d. Destruction of Original Records That Have Been Duplicated. Original paper records that have been duplicated on microfilm, microfiche, data processing, or word processing equipment may be destroyed prior to the retention period specified in this records schedule without further approval from the Division of Archives and History provided the following two conditions are met:

(1) The duplicate copy of the information contained in the original record is maintained for the specified time.

(2) The original paper record has not been scheduled for permanent preservation.

(1) Before erasing or otherwise destroying data processing tapes, disks, or other forms of machine readable records, fill out a copy of Form RC-2U (Request for Disposal of Machine Readable Records) and deliver it to the University Archivist/Records Administrator for review and approval. If the University Archivist/Records Administrator identifies the information contained in these records as having historical value or if this schedule specifies that the information be retained permanently, some eye-readable form of the information, such as a printout, should be sent to the University Archives before the tape or disk is erased. A copy of Form RC-2U is in the back of this records schedule.

(2) Computer printouts and other data processing input/output may be destroyed without specific authorization and recording, provided the following conditions apply:

(a) The information is retained on magnetic media (e.g., Magnetic tape, diskettes, etc.) And the media are scheduled in a records retention and disposition schedule.

(b) The output copy is not specifically listed and scheduled in this records retention and disposition schedule.

8. Microfilming. Microfilming is an expensive operation, and experience has shown that many state records may be kept in their original form for the length of time they are needed more cheaply than they can be microfilmed. However, in the case of specific records which have a lengthy retention period or which are to be kept permanently, it may be economical to microfilm them and to destroy the originals. The "Uniform Photographic Copies of Business and Public Records as Evidence Act" (G.S. 8-45.1) provides that photographic reproductions, when properly identified, are as admissible in evidence as the original itself.

There is consequently no legal bar to substituting microfilm copies for the originals. Prior to microfilming, however, the records to be filmed should be carefully checked to ensure that they are in proper order. When filmed, the individual reels should be identified and indexed, and each reel should contain a certification that the photographic copies thereon are true and exact copies of the originals. For particularly important microfilm, a duplicate security copy should be made and stored in a separate location.

Some university records are essential; that is, their loss would jeopardize the rights and privileges of the university or of its present and former students. The information contained in such records should be protected from loss in the event of fire or other disaster. One method of protecting this information is to microfilm the originals, which may or may not be kept after filming. If records are filmed in order to provide a duplicate security copy, the film or a duplicate copy should be sent to another location with proper temperature and humidity control for security storage.

9. University Records Center. in order to store inactive administrative records and other records that need to be retained for occasional reference (e.g., records involving legal settlements, financial records subject to audit, etc.), it may be advisable to establish a university records center.

A records center, which is simply a well-organized storage area in a fire-resistant building with a protective environment, can enable a university to realize significant savings through reduced requirements for office

Space and filing equipment, more efficient use of staff time, and reduced maintenance expenses. Simultaneously, inactive records maintained in low-cost storage, if properly cataloged and stored, are readily available for use when needed. While in the records center, records remain in the administrative custody of the office that has placed them in storage and should not be made available to unauthorized personnel. After the designated "life span" of those records has expired, they either should be destroyed or transferred to the custody of the archives as specified in the records retention schedule. If they are transferred to and accessioned by the archives, they become the property of the archives and may be treated accordingly. Usually the records center can be supervised by an archivist/records administrator. If proper procedures are followed and records are properly transferred, a small staff should be sufficient to operate the records center. The same personnel often can operate both the records center and the archives.

If a university chooses to establish and operate a records center, the Department of Cultural Resources will provide advisory assistance when requested.

10. If No Records Center or Archives is Available. if your institution does not have a records center, keep the records in your office or some other designated area for the total number of years specified in the schedule and then destroy or transfer the records to the custody of the archives, as specified. If your university does not have an archives, retain records scheduled for the archives in the office or some other designated area permanently and do not destroy them.

11. University Archives. Regardless of whether or not a records center is established, provisions should be made for carefully preserving the records that are scheduled for permanent preservation for historical research purposes. It is advisable to collect such records, after they are no longer required for the current operations of the office that created them, in a single place designated as the University Archives.

It is recommended that every institution of higher learning establish its own archives with a competent person designated as an archivist/records administrator. The larger institutions generally need a full-time archivist/records administrator to properly manage current and semicurrent records and preserve historical records. Smaller institutions may utilize a part-time archivist to properly maintain and preserve those records with historical and research value.

The university archives may be administered in one of several ways. Many larger institutions have established a professional position of archivist/records administrator under the direction of the president or chancellor. Such an organizational placement assures the archivist/records administrator of the authority needed to supervise an active and continuing records management and preservation program in the institution. In other institutions, the archivist/records administrator might be a position in the dean's office, carrying with it the considerable influence of that office.

Establishment of a university archives involves a commitment on the part of the institution to a program that will need continuing support from the standpoint of finances, authority, and acceptance. Space provided for records, for instance, should be properly air-conditioned and equipped with humidity controls and must be free from pests, injurious light, steam pipes, and other threats to the safety of the records. Containers and file folders used with permanent records should be acid-neutral to prevent damage to the records. The archivist should be prepared for all duties with proper academic and specialized training. Most important of all, the archivist/records administrator must be given the authority and time to carry out the many duties and responsibilities of the program. The appointment of a full-time or emeritus professor as "archivist" does not solve the problem. Finally, in the larger institutions, clerical assistance will be needed if the archivist is to do the job properly.

The Department of Cultural Resources will, upon request and to the extent of its resources, make recommendations concerning the establishment of an archives records management program in individual institutions.

12. If You Have a Question. if you have a question about disposing of a particular series of records or about legal aspects of disposing of a particular file, check with your university archivist/records administrator, your university attorney, or with a legal counsel from the UNC-General Administration, as appropriate.

13. Assistance of the Department of Cultural Resources. Because the records of state-supported institutions are public records, the Department of Cultural Resources within the limits of its budget and personnel will provide free advice and assistance to such institutions.

This schedule replaces all previous editions of the University Records Retention and Disposition Schedule, which should be discarded.

The schedule is not mandatory, and officials are not required to transfer or destroy records after the periods of time specified in it. If, however, it is found that the records do not have further use or value for official or administrative purposes after the periods of time designated in the schedule, they may be transferred or destroyed as specified in this schedule without further reference to this department. In no event, however, may records legally be destroyed prior to the times designated, unless specific authority has been granted by the Department of Cultural Resources (see Introduction, Sections 4 and 6).

In the event that a legal requirement, statute, local ordinance, or federal program requires that a record be kept longer than specified in this schedule, the longer retention period shall be applied. All questions concerning any legal requirement for retaining a record should be referred to the university attorney. Additional information about this and other records management publications may be obtained by writing the Records Services Branch, Division of Archives and History, 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27601-2807.

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